ELEPHAS MERIDIONALIS.—CRANIUM AND MANDIBLE. 
209 
As compared with E. insignis, as far as known, and on the same authority— 
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Y. OSTEOLOGY. 
1. CRANIUM AND MANDIBLE. 
The only portions of the skull of E. meridionalis hitherto derived from British strata 
are the fragments of upper and lower jaws just described. The highly suggestive 
skulls in the Museum of the Piti Palace, Florence, from the Valley of the Arno, furnish 
very conclusive evidence in connection with the osteological characters of this Elephant, 
and have been for the most part described by Nesti and Falconer. 1 Having inspected 
these remains, and compared them with the same parts of other extinct European species, 
I can endorse the views advanced by Falconer in his excellent descriptions. 
As far as the skulls of E. meridionalis, E. aniiquus , and E. primigenius are con¬ 
cerned, the lengthened comparisons given at page 128 need not be repeated. These, 
however, may be briefly summarised as follows: 
1. The skull of the Meridional Elephant, from the vertex to the nasal aperture, is 
relatively shorter than those of the Mammoth and Asiatic Elephant, approaching nearer 
to that of the African and the short-crowned cranium of E. planifrons and other Sewalik 
species. Unfortunately no skull of E. antiquus is available. 
2. The posterior border of the vertex is transverse and rounded in the Meridional, 
although not to the extent apparent in the crown of the African skull ; whilst in the 
Mammoth and Asiatic Elephant it is narrower, and rising higher gives the prominence 
to the skull which distinguishes at a glance the crania of the two latter from the African. 
3. As in all Elephants with ponderous incisors, the premaxillaries are long and broad ; 
and the frontal depression of the Asiatic and Mammoth is more or less apparent also in 
the Meridional, whereas the same part is flat in the African. 
4. The spaces between the temporal fossae is narrower than in the Asiatic and 
Mammoth Elephants, contrasting with the relative greater dimensions in the African and 
E planifrons. 
5. The nasal aperture is nearer to the vertex than in the Asiatic and Mammoth, in 
consequence of the lowness of the crown. 
1 ‘ Nuova Giornale de Liter.,’ 1825, and ‘Pal. Mem.,’ vol. ii, p. 121. 
